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President-elect Trump plans to deploy members of his Elon Musk-backed government efficiency team both within the White House and throughout government, according to a new report, raising concerns about the role of those individuals and their potential conflicts of interest.
Many of the staff for the non-governmental Department of Government Efficiency will receive “special governmental employee” status, according to the New York Times report, which allows them to work only part of the year and subjects them to certain ethics rules. Neither Trump nor DOGE leaders Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have publicly described what the exact nature of the outside commission’s role will be except to say it will make recommendations and otherwise help bring about cost and regulation-cutting proposals.
A key stated goal of the entity is to slash employees and spending at federal agencies, though its team members will reportedly work among and within them. After Trump’s inauguration, the Times reported that DOGE plans to send two team members to each major agency. It also is expected to have staff within the Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Digital Service. OMB Director-designate Russ Vought has expressed overlapping views to DOGE and stressed his goal to shrink the federal workforce and the responsibilities of federal employees.
The outside group is currently working out of the Washington offices of Musk-owned Tesla and is expected to have office space in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus.
Robert Shea, who served as OMB’s deputy director during the George W. Bush administration, said the “potential is there for a good working relationship” between his former agency and DOGE.
If those deployed engage career staff “in a constructive search for workable, scorable ideas, that’s a recipe for success,” said Shea, now CEO of GovNavigators. “If they come in there acting like they know all the answers and don’t rely on that expertise, that’s a recipe for disaster.”
Donald Sherman, executive director and chief counsel at Citizens for Responsibility in Ethics, said the lack of clear structure for DOGE raises questions about the chain of command for those individuals, as well as career civil servants.
“There are obvious, practical questions about whether a DOGE person stationed at, say, the OMB reports to the OMB director or reports to Elon Musk,” Sherman said.
Musk and Ramaswamy have suggested they have a bounty of ideas for eradicating waste in government, from eliminating specific regulations to forcing federal employees to commute to the office each day to issuing incentives for employees to leave government. They will enter their new roles without government experience, however, and have vowed to use their business acumen and outsider status to effect change. They have met with lawmakers and allies on Capitol Hill have pledged to support them with legislative efforts.
Shea said DOGE could help bring about some ideas without Congress’ assistance, such as a governmentwide hiring freeze—as Trump instituted upon taking office in his first term—widespread reductions in force and identifying areas for OMB to delay the distribution of funds out to agencies until funds expire. The former official noted the latter option would likely be in contravention of the law and Constitution.
Musk, through SpaceX and other ventures, has billions of dollars in contracting revenue with the federal government. Those assets have raised conflict of interest concerns, though his legal liability could change depending on what type of role he formally accepts. Special government employees generally must submit financial disclosure statements to ethics officials and resolve conflicts of interest, though those documents are not necessarily made public. They are recruited to federal government to provide specific expertise on a limited basis.
Walt Shaub, a former director of the Office of Government Ethics, said that given Musk’s widespread entanglements with the government it is “impossible to imagine” how the billionaire businessman could avoid conflicts. Generally, special government employees, or non-employees serving on an advisory board, cannot involve themselves in government business in which they have a personal interest. Shaub predicted that Trump could grant Musk a blanket exemption from the ethics rules.
Sherman said there was “nothing normal” about the lack of transparency around DOGE. He suggested he would typically expect such a group would formally stand up a federal advisory committee in compliance with federal law, which would create more accountability and ties to the government.
“We still don’t know who is paying for these employees, who they’re reporting to and what sort of guardrail or oversight is going to be in place,” Sherman said.
Some of Trump’s more official appointees going through the normal processes have encountered delays in their confirmations as they await agreements with the Office of Government Ethics and agency ethics officials to resolve potential conflicts of interest. Senate Republicans have received pleas from Democrats and others to not plow forward with the hearings or votes without the relevant committees first receiving all the normal documentation from the designated nominees.
In a letter to the Trump transition team on Monday, Robert Weissman and Lisa Gilbert, co-presidents of the watchdog group Public Citizen, asked that they be granted appointments to DOGE.
“Unlike Mr. Musk, neither of us, nor Public Citizen, has a financial interest in federal government contracts and spending,” they said. “In bringing the consumer and public perspective to DOGE, we can offer views that are untainted by the appearance of corruption or self-dealing.”
They added their addition would bring DOGE in compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which requires such panels to be “fairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented.”
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